Is Florida Bad for Kids?

Another tragedy--the killing of a 2-year-old--stokes the furor over the state's broken child-welfare system

Even if she had actually visited the 2-year-old's central Florida home on July 1, child-welfare caseworker Erica Jones would not have found little Alfredo Montez. He was being beaten to death in a mobile home 10 miles away, allegedly by his baby-sitter, Richard Chouquer, 23, as punishment for soiling his pants. The child was then wrapped in a bedspread, one with characters from Disney's 101 Dalmatians, and allegedly thrown into the trunk of Chouquer's gray Ford Taurus. Police say that as Chouquer and his girlfriend, Amandy Lawrence, 22, drove off to find a spot to dump Alfredo's body, they took the...

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